Differences may exist among generations’ acceptance of pet humanization in the United States. In Packaged Facts’ July-August 2024 and November 2024 Surveys of Pet Owners, 72% of dog owners and 70% of cat owners reported considering pets as part of their families. However, differences emerged by age group.
Pets as family by generation
Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, considered dogs and cats to be members of their families at higher rates than Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2020. Among Baby Boomers in Packaged Facts’ surveys, 87% of dog owners and 84% of cat owners considered their pets as family. On the other hand, only 57% of Gen Z dog owners and 52% of cat owners believed that pets were family. Baby Boomers also considered that pet ownership made them happy. Seventy-six percent of Baby Boomer dog owners and 70% of cat-owners reported that they considered themselves happier because they have pets. However, that dropped to 46% of dog owners and 49% of cat owners among Gen Z pet owners.
“Despite the importance of Gen Z and Millennials in driving pet population growth, a single-minded focus on new pet parents and new pets misses a big part of the picture,” Packaged Facts analysts wrote in their report Pet Population and Ownership Trends in the US, 8th Edition. “The senior side of pet ownership is all the more important given that the human/animal bond tends to deepen as pets age…A similar pattern applies to the desire to have dogs or cats as long as possible: higher percentages of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers indicate that they want to have pets as long as they can, compared to Millennials and Gen Zers.”
Pet food marketers may benefit from remembering to also focusing on older generations, although younger generations have become the largest pet ownership groups.